ADMINISTRATION 115
wholly waste. The next famine occurred in 1845, caused by a failure
of the monsoon, which ceased in August. There was much distress ;
Rs. 70,000 was expended on relief and 3 lakhs of revenue was
remitted. The District was only slightly affected in 1897, distress
being confined to some villages on the Hoshangabad border and to
the forest tribes, and the numbers relieved never reached 4,000. In
the cotton areas an excellent crop in 1895 had enriched the people.
In 1899 the rainfall was extraordinarily deficient, and there was
a complete failure of both harvests. The numbers on relief in July,
igoo, reached 89,ooo, or 31 per cent. of the population, and the total
expenditure was 18 lakhs. Several roads were constructed or improved,
the railway embankment was widened, and forest-clearings were made
in the Manjrod tract with a view to the settlement of ryotwdri villages.
The Deputy-Commissioner is aided by three Assistant or Extra-
Assistant Commissioners. For administrative purposes the District
is divided into three tahsals, each of which has a
tahsalddr and a naab-tahsalddr, while an additional Administration.
naib-tahsalddr is posted to Burhanpur for the Manjrod tract. A
Forest officer of the Imperial Service is usually stationed in the
District, and the public works are in .charge of the Executive Engineer
of the Hoshangabad division, whose head-quarters are at Hoshang-
abad town.
The civil judicial staff consists of a District and a Subordinate judge,
with Munsifs at Khandwa and Burhanpur, and additional Munsifs have
recently been appointed to Khandwa. The Divisional and Sessions
Judge of the Nerbudda Division has superior civil and criminal
jurisdiction. The tendency of the people to petty litigation is notice-
able, but many suits are compromised after being filed in court.
Owing to the situation of the District on the main route between
Northern and Central India and the Deccan, many professional
criminals annually pass through it and commit dacoities, burglaries,
and cattle-lifting; but very little serious crime is to be attributed to
the resident population. The proximity of several Native States gives
rise to a large amount of smuggling of excisable articles.
Nimar is the only District in the Central Provinces in which the
regular land revenue system of the Mughal empire was introduced.
The assessment was made on separate holdings after measurement.
The pitel or headman of the village received a drawback on the collec-
tions, besides various miscellaneous dues, and his office was hereditary;
while for groups of villages superintendents designated mandlos. were
appointed, who managed the revenue accounts and received a propor-
tion as remuneration, their offices being also hereditary. Relations of
the pdtel or mandloa, in lieu of succession to the office which passed by
primogeniture, obtained holdings of land, and thus a class of hereditary
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